On 11 December, Dr Thorsten Schlee will give a guest lecture on the topic ‘No improvement in sight? The social situation of south-east European immigrants in Duisburg’. Dr Thorsten Schlee is a research associate at the Institute for Work and Qualification (IAQ) at the University of Duisburg-Essen. The lecture will take place online via Zoom. A prior registration for participation is required. The flyer for the event organised by the Duisburg branch of the Southeast Europe Association (SOG) can be found here.

On 9 December, Tyyne Karjalainen will give a guest lecture on ‘EU Enlargement in Wartime Europe: Three Dimensions and Scenarios’. Tyyne Karjalainen is research fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs in Helsinki. The lecture will take place online via Zoom in English. A prior registration for participation is required. The flyer for the event organised by the Duisburg branch of the Southeast Europe Association (SOG) can be found here.

Oliver Schwarz's office hours for the lecture period in the winter semester 2024/25 are now fixed and can be booked as usual via the DFN appointment planner. All appointments will take place via Zoom.

Oliver Schwarz is taking part at the UB|SchreibCamp, which will take place from 12 to 16 August at the campus Duisburg. As in previous years, the programme will focus entirely on writing academic papers. The workshop ‘Does ChatGPT write my term paper?’ offered by Oliver Schwarz will take place on 16 August. Registration is now open.

After the European elections, Oliver Schwarz was interviewed by Tim Mahlo for the TV channel STUDIO 47. The full version of the interview can be found on YouTube.

Shortly before the European elections, Oliver Schwarz was interviewed by Juliana Fischer for the University of Duisburg-Essen. An shortened version of the conversation can be found here.

How can the EU become more democratic? And in general: Can the EU be reformed? Oliver Schwarz will be discussing these and other questions with MEP Daniel Freund on 27 May. The discussion event is organised by Europe Direct Duisburg and the Evangelisches Laboratorium in Moers. Further information can be found here.

35 parties and other political associations are running in the European Parliament elections in Germany on 9 June 2024. The Federal Agency for Civic Education presents them all in short portraits. Oliver Schwarz has created four of these portraits: Aktion Partei für Tierschutz (TIERSCHUTZ hier!), Demokratische Allianz für Vielfalt und Aufbruch (DAVA), Freie Demokratische Partei (FDP) and Partei der Vernunft (PDV).

Oliver Schwarz will be a guest at the Kommende Dortmund on 30 April. As part of the project ‘Kommende-Forum: Challenged social and constitutional state in view of the 2024 European elections', he will be giving a workshop for first-time voters. Further information can be found here.

On 22 April, Oliver Schwarz will be a guest of the Association for the Promotion of Advanced Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen. He will be speaking at the Essen campus on the topic of "Between deepening and enlargement: The European Union in the super election year 2024". The lecture starts at 14:00 in the Glass Pavilion. Everyone interested is cordially invited! Further information can be found here.

In the current issue of "Europa kommunal", the German section of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) focusses on the upcoming European elections in June. In his article "It is not enough to appeal to young people to vote in the European elections", Oliver Schwarz describes the municipalities as a space for mobilisation against Euroscepticism. Further information can be found here.

On 18 April, Oliver Schwarz and Michael Kaeding will take part in a panel on the future of EU enlargement. They will be joined by Boštjan Udovič from the University of Ljubljana and Danijela Jacimovic from the University of Montenegro to discuss the topic. The panel starts at 16:15 on the campus Duisburg in room LS 105. Everyone interested is cordially invited! Further information can be found here.

Oliver Schwarz's consultation hours for the winter semester 2024/25 are now fixed. All appointments are organised via DFN scheduler and take place exclusively via Zoom.

With the start of the lecture period in the summer semester, Oliver Schwarz's consultation hours will take place weekly on tuesdays from 10 and 11 am. Appointments can be made now via DFN scheduler. All appointments will take place via Zoom.

At the invitation of the Europa-Union Duisburg and the Young European Federalists Düsseldorf/Duisburg, Oliver Schwarz will speak at the Café Museum on 14 March on the topic of "Opportunities and risks - the 2024 European elections from a political science perspective". The lecture starts at 7 pm. Participation is free of charge. Further information on the lecture can be found here.

Oliver Schwarz is taking part in this year's UB|SchreibCamp, which will take place from 4 to 8 March on the Essen campus. As in previous years, the programme is focused entirely on academic writing. The workshop "Does ChatGPT write my term paper?" offered by Oliver Schwarz will take place on 8 March. Registration is now open.

On 20 and 21 February, Oliver Schwarz will take part in the kickoff conference of the Horizon Europe project "Invigorating Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy for a Resilient Europe" (InvigoratEU) in Tbilisi. InvigoratEU is a consortium of 18 partners. It is already the third Horizon Project coordinated by the Jean Monnet Chair at the Institute of Political Science. It is part of the ongoing ActEU project, which is focussing on regaining society's trust in democracy in the run-up to the 2024 European elections. It also builds on the already completed SEnECA project, which focussed on relations between the EU and the Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan). Further information on the project and the kick-off conference can be found here.

The consultation hours of Oliver Schwarz for the lecture-free period in the winter semester 2023/24 are now scheduled and can be booked as usual via DFN scheduler. All appointments will take place via Zoom.